BOONE COUNTY – Twenty years ago this fall, Boone County running back Shaun Alexander rewrote local, state and national record books while leading the Rebels' football team to the Class 4A state championship game his final year in high school. The numbers that Alexander put up rank among the best in United States prep football history. He said the finer moments centered around people, such as less recognized standouts from that year, including Brian Maney and Josh Hayes.

"Those guys were unsung heroes. One of the greatest things my senior year was I got to play with my cousin (current Boone County assistant coach Ben Brown)," Alexander said Friday as he spoke by telephone from his home in Great Falls, Va. "He started as a sophomore at tight end, and scored in the Henry Clay game. They called him Big Ben, but he was my little cousin. It made my year so sweet."

Boone County's Shaun Alexander breaks away for a solid gain during the first half of the Kentucky East-West All Star game June 8, 1995, at Boone County High School. He had 18 of the West's 25 first-half points. Michael Snyder/Cincinnati Enquir

Boone County running back Shaun Alexander pushes for extra yardage against the defensive efforts of Trinity's Matt Janes, left, and Mark Norris during the second quarter of their Division IV state high school football championship game Dec. 3, 1994, in Louisville. Gary Landers/The Cincinnati Enqu

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Brown, a member of the Rebels' coaching staff since 2001, is a direct connection to the glorious Boone County past he helped pave the way for two decades ago. "The one game I remember is Lafayette," Brown said of the 14-1 season. "I know he had over 350 yards and seven touchdowns. It was crazy."

Before he became the all-time leading rusher at Alabama. Before he became a star in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and set the league single-season touchdown record with 28 and winning his first NFL rushing title with 1,880 yards in 2005. Before he was named league MVP that year and played in a Super Bowl. Before he was inducted into LaRosa's High School Sports Hall of Fame, which called him arguably the greatest running back in Greater Cincinnati history, Alexander rushed for 3,166 yards for the 1994 Rebels.

It stands as the greatest single-season rushing yardage total in Northern Kentucky history, going on 20 years, and third all-time in state history. At the time, the total ranked 25th nationally. He averaged 211 yards per game and 6.94 yards per carry. He scored what remains a state record 50 rushing touchdowns, 54 touchdowns total, at the time a state record and eighth-best nationally. His 326 points scored that season, breaking a 31-year old Kentucky mark previously set in 1963, remain a state standard.

"I got to coach him his senior year and the all-star game," said Bellevue principal Dave Eckstein, who was a Boone County assistant coach. "He was a humble star, a real nice kid, an honors student and the class president every year. He played in the all-star game after signing at Alabama. He didn't have to. We figured we might as well use him, so we gave him a few carries and he still had over 100 yards. What you could see then is he was the complete package."

Shaun Alexander makes a run for Boone County High School in 1994.(Photo: Marc Hardin/for the Cincinnati E)

Known as Alexander the Great, he was named Kentucky's Mr. Football for 1994 and was a Parade Magazine and USA Today All-America.

"He had this ability to make people miss and get in the secondary, on a straight line. It happened so fast, he was in the end zone before the defense could do anything about it," said Owen Hauck, Alexander's Boone County head coach. "Lot of times, blocking didn't matter."

Alexander ended his prep career third all-time in Kentucky and ninth nationally in rushing yardage. He is officially credited by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association with 6,662 career rushing yards and 110 total touchdowns. He had 2,401 yards rushing and 42 touchdowns as a junior. The career TD total is tied for fifth all-time in Kentucky. His 104 rushing scores rank fourth. His epic senior season earned him a spot in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd (he later appeared on the magazine's cover as a pro) and caused college coaches to reevaluate him late in the recruiting process.

"That was the wild part, the recruiting," said former Boone assistant Rick Thompson, now coaching at The College of Mount St. Joseph. "It was down to Notre Dame, Michigan and Alabama. Notre Dame thought they had him because his brother played drums in the Notre Dame marching band. But he had a funny feeling about the running backs coach. Then he drove in the snow to visit Michigan, and decided he didn't want his parents driving up to see him in that kind of weather. When he visited Alabama, it was pretty warm, and I think he liked that."

Though the Rebels fell short of the big-school title in 1994, losing to Louisville Trinity, the path to the final was filled with indelible moments that continue to bind the Alexander and Boone County football families. Alexander's mother, Carol, works in the Boone County School District truancy department. She lives in the Union home that Alexander purchased when he got to the NFL. His brother, Boone County alum Durran Alexander, has directed the Shaun Alexander Foundation.

Brown has caught himself telling stories about his famous cousin. He sees Alexander's young smiling face all the time when he catches a glimpse of 1994 photographs sitting inside one of two framed exhibits in the hallways at Boone County dedicated to the great tailback. Alexander's No. 37 powder blue jersey also hangs in a case in a school conference room.

By the beginning of the 1994 season, coach Hauck thought he'd seen just about everything on the football field. He was 67 years old and in the twilight of his career when Alexander changed his way of thinking.

"You didn't really want one kid doing it all, but he was so much better than everybody else that it was one of those kind of things where we just gave him the ball and hoped everybody blocked," said Hauck, who called Alexander's number on running plays 456 times that season, ranking second in state history, third in U.S. history. "He'd just get off the ground and go back in the huddle, and we'd call the next play for him."

Those memories sit with Alexander like old friends. They have company. Alexander, 37, and wife, Valerie, have seven children, five girls and two boys, ranging in age from 1 to 11. The couple home-school the older ones in a large, six-bedroom home on a 1-acre lot in Great Falls, a Washington, D.C., suburb located near where the Washington Redskins train. Alexander never left the area after ending his nine-year NFL career with a brief final-year stay in 2008 with the Redskins after rushing for 9,453 yards and scoring 112 touchdowns as a pro.

"Here, I can be out with my kids and just be somebody's dad," Alexander said.

The Boone County legend is still changing the way people think. Alexander, a devout Christian, is outspoken about his faith and encourages young people, both personally and in his book, Touchdown Alexander, to lead healthy, positive lives. He also helps prepare players for life after retirement from the NFL. Recently, he changed his oldest son's prevailing opinion about his dad while visiting with Redskins running back Alfred Morris.

"We were talking about life after football," said Alexander, who prefers to let his children learn about his NFL career on their own. "My son is with us and he says, 'Hey dad, were you on TV like Mr. Morris.' So Alfred pulls out his iPad, and he shows me running down the sideline. Then my son says, 'Dad, I want to be like you when I get older.' It was pretty cool."